Company Apologizes After AI-Made Ad Imitated Sailor Moon
An advertising campaign created with AI ended up generating major controversy in Japan after fans began complaining about the visual similarities to the classic anime Sailor Moon. Cosmetics company Utena officially addressed the situation and announced the removal of the advertisements and videos related to the campaign.
Company Apologizes After AI-Made Ad Imitated Sailor Moon
The campaign was first launched in train stations across Tokyo and Osaka on April 27. A few days later, on May 1, the company also uploaded the promotional video “Moisture Warrior” to YouTube, inspired by the magical girl concepts commonly seen in Japanese anime. The project was part of the promotion for the “Utena Moisture” skincare line.
According to Utena, the project’s main goal was to reduce the amount of time required to produce animated content by using AI to speed up the creative process. The company also wanted to reach a younger audience through an aesthetic heavily inspired by anime.
However, shortly after the launch, many users started claiming that the characters, poses, and visual elements looked too similar to Sailor Moon.
That quickly sparked a huge debate, with one side criticizing the use of AI that imitated Sailor Moon’s style, while the other side defended the use of AI. Following the negative reaction, Utena released an official statement apologizing to the public.
The company stated that it lacked sensitivity regarding the respect for the originality of existing works and also regarding the feelings of fans.
In addition, all videos uploaded to YouTube and related social media posts will be removed. Physical advertisements displayed in stations are also being gradually taken down.
The company emphasized that the material was not created by directly training AI on specific Sailor Moon characters. According to the statement, the campaign also went through human supervision and legal reviews before publication.
Even so, after the criticism, Utena announced that it will conduct a new full review of the case alongside external specialists. The company also promised to strengthen its internal processes to avoid similar situations involving AI-generated campaigns in the future.
via Yahoo News